Fred Bardes v. First National Bank

• Decision Date: 22 December 1899
• Docket Number: No. 429,429
• Parties: FRED BARDES, Trustee, etc., Complainant , v. FIRST NATIONAL BANK of Hawarden, Iowa, et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

175 U.S. 526

20 S.Ct. 196

44 L.Ed. 261

FRED BARDES, Trustee, etc., Complainant,

v FIRST NATIONAL BANK of Hawarden, Iowa, et al.

No. 429.

Submitted December 20, 1899.

Decided December 22, 1899.

Messrs. C. A. Brandenburg, William F. Lohr, Henry C. Gardiner, Frederick W. Lohr, Deloss C. Shull, and William H. Farnsworth for complainant.

Messrs. William Milchrist and John Hutchinson for defendants.

Mr. Chief Justice Fuller delivered the opinion of the court:

This is a certificate from the district court of the United States for the northern district of Iowa. It appears therefrom that a bill of complaint was filed in that court sitting in bankruptcy by Bardes, trustee of the estate of Walker, who had been therein adjudged a bankrupt on his own petition, seeking to set aside the transfer of a stock of goods by the bankrupt, and to compel defendants to account for the goods or their proceeds, because the transfer was in fraud of the provisions of the bankruptcy act and of the creditors of the bank; that defendants interposed a demurrer to the bill on the ground that the court could not take jurisdiction of the case, and that thereupon it was certified that the court 'desiring to obtain the opinion and instruction of the Supreme Court of the United States for its guidance in the premises, hereby certifies to the Supreme Court for its consideration and determination the following questions,' and four questions were thereupon propounded. And it was further ordered that the transcript transmitted to this court should contain the bill, the demurrer, and the certificate.

By the 24th section of the bankruptcy act of July 1, 1898 (30 Stat. at L. 544, chap. 541), the Supreme Court of the United States, the circuit courts of appeals, and the supreme courts of the territories were invested with 'appellate jurisdiction of controversies arising in bankruptcy proceedings from the courts of bankruptcy from which they have appellate jurisdiction in other cases.' And it was also provided, § 25, d, that 'controverisies may be certified to the Supreme Court of the United States from former court may exercise jurisdiction thereof and issue writs of certiorari pursuant to of and issue writs of certiorari pursuant to the provisions of the United States laws now in force or such as may be hereafter enacted.'

By the 5th section of the judiciary act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. at L. 826, chap. 517), it was provided that appeals or writs of error might be taken from the...